This past Saturday at NewSpring was AWESOME!!! We baptized 99 people! YEAH GOD! Ninety nine people stood and said, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior” and then publicly identified themselves with Him by being baptized!
That brings me to my fourth and final post on this series…does God REALLY want the church to grow?
If you will remember when we left Peter and the other 119 people in the last post the Holy Spirit had fallen in a new and creative way, Peter had used Scripture and pointed to the person and work of Jesus Christ. And what were the results? It says in Acts 2:41 that 3,000 people were added to their number THAT DAY!
Now—like it or not, somebody counted! Call it unbiblical—WAIT—you can’t because, well, it’s IN the Bible! So you can’t say that! Is there a rebuke for the person who counted? Hold on…I need to read all around it one more time…just to make sure. NOPE—no one got mad because someone counted.
AND…please see this—did anyone get mad at “all those new people” who joined the fellowship? Do you see people in the “original group” of 120 saying, “Well, I guess we won’t be able to hang out with Peter and John like we used to!” Do you see people saying, “It’s too big—we don’t know everybody!!!”
Let me answer for you—NO, and the reason why is because the early church was focused on the work of Jesus. They were more concerned with getting those who did not know Christ IN the kingdom rather than hanging out with the preacher OR doing an in-depth Bible study on the goat in the book of Leviticus!
And whoever this person was who counted (I believe it was Luke)-he counted AGAIN in Acts 4:4! Can you believe that? And check out the following verses AND the fact that they make a reference that NUMBERS of people kept coming to the church…
- Acts 5:14
- Acts 6:1
- Acts 6:7
- Acts 9:31
- Acts 9:35
- Acts 9:42
- Acts 11:21
- Acts 11:24
- Acts 14:1
- Acts 14:21
- Acts 16:5
- Acts 17:12
A well meaning person approached me once and told me that he really liked our church…but that he didn’t want to join because it was “too big!” I am sorry…I have no tolerance for this type of talk…if a person has to “get past the fact” that we are reaching people for Christ—that the lost are getting found and the found people are getting grown up—then I would say that person has a problem with perspective.
A church can be small—but it should not remain small—it must be in a constant state of growth—because the fact is this—if something is not growing then it is dying!!!
And please save me the e-mails about me not knowing what it’s like to be small and struggle. It wasn’t that long ago that 15 people were meeting in a living room talking about NewSpring…and within 2 months five of those 15 were gone!!! I know what it’s like to struggle—but we REFUSE to get so inward focused and lick the lint out of each others belly buttons while people in our community die and go to hell.
Besides…if you think a church like NewSpring is too big then that proves to me two things…
#1 - You Are Not In A Home Group! 99.9% of the people who say NewSpring is too big are not in a home group. If you will continue to read in Acts 2:42-47 you will see that they met in each other’s homes—this is how the majority of ministry took place. Peter and John and the rest of the Apostles did not do all the ministry—in fact, they REFUSED to do it all…read Acts 6:1-7 for further proof of this! My advice to those who are sitting on the ledge but are afraid it’s “too big”—try a home group!
#2 - You Do Not Volunteer! People who volunteer rarely complain about anything…AND when they do we always listen because we KNOW they are committed to God’s work through this church. (Usually the people who complain are the ones who have never been OR think their spiritual gift is sitting on their rear end!!!) When you team up with people on Sunday you feel like you are a part of the team!!!
One more thing on being “too big.” What if we used that excuse in other areas of our lives?
What if we called our stock broker and said, “Hey dude-stop making me money—my 401k is TOO BIG!” He would have us investigated for smoking crack!!! We WANT our money to grow because it is VALUABLE to us…and God wants the church to grow because it is VALUABLE to HIM!
What if we treated Clemson football games that way? What if we had to know everyone before we would attend? Uh, you never would go! Seriously, no one ever pulls up to a game and says, “It’s too big—I can’t go in there.” No one ever says, “I was so offended—Tommy Bowden didn’t personally come and talk to me AND ask my opinion on the plays he should run!” OUCH!
NO—we go to the game—we experience something with people we don’t know—and one common thread holds us together—FOOTBALL! But then those same people want to go to a itty bitty church the next day—why is it that we want to build our football stadiums and bank buildings larger and larger and our churches smaller and smaller? Just curious!
Yep—we are into numbers at NewSpring because God is into them! You may not like it—but there are thousands who do because numbers represent souls and they have been reached because there are people AND a church who cares enough to do what it takes.